Are you still smitten with France?

He sounds a bit like me V’, I retired at 50, with 100/wk, since lived in Portugal, The Caribb, Ireland and here, you do it and you manage, as I said, now my main concern would be health cover.

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I’m in the department next to you, the Tarn.

Actually, Aude is a fairly prosperous part of France. You made a lovely choice.

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Depends on the paint perhaps. Spent a small country’s budget in the U.K. on “breathable” no chemicals paint to freshen up our little village house before we make the final move into it with furniture . Lugged it all the way down South to spend 2 weeks decorating. All crépi ‘d out after 10 days we admitted defeat and headed for a day out. A craft afternoon making a découpage :rofl:.

We are about 25 mins drive from Quillan! Amazing Brocante and market at nearby Espéraza.

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I agree with a lot of what you say. Economics immigration constraints and language play a part in where people choose to live, if elsewhere from their country of origin. From a purely personal standpoint we looked first at places we could buy a property in with our limited budget. Those which we’d be able to speak English (or at least be hopefully understood) also made the list. This took us to Scotland, Borders & NE England . We decided too cold, too bleak in winter and as far from our family as going “abroad” & whilst cheaper than the area we are in , houses still stretched the budget if we were to find somewhere we liked that wasn’t on a large estate or miles from anywhere . The USA , which we’ve travelled widely in and love is economically beyond our reach and we’d not be allowed to stay for longer than 6 months , ditto Canada. India , also a country we love has similar restrictions on settling permanently and “foreigners” are not allowed to own property . Crete has always been a draw for us too but there’s no way we’d ever learn Greek & swapping one island for another might bring its own challenges . So, with a workable amount of French (albeit learned 45 years ago - my French mistress must’ve got something right) we decided France it would be. The Aude had surprisingly affordable houses so here we are.

Thank you Mandy.

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Really do not like football but I am proud of France